TRAGEDY was only a matter of time if commuters continued to ignore safety barriers and play “chicken” with trains, NSW’s transport minister said today.

“People need to understand — if they do this it’s like playing Russian roulette with 400 tonnes of steel,” Mr Constance said.

“This is silly behaviour and it only takes one slip or a stumble you could be seriously injured or worse.”

A passenger cuts it fine crossing the tracks at Mulgrave in Sydney’s west.Sydney Trains Chief Executive Howard Collins said the more than 160 near misses across the NSW rail network in 2016 were because people ignored stop signs, walked around safety barriers or ran in front of oncoming trains.

They included an instance at Mulgrave in Sydney’s west, in which video shows a young man race across tracks to catch a train seconds before it thunders into the platform behind him.

Seventy incidents or injuries were recorded.

“Don’t put your life in danger because you are running late to catch your train. Plan ahead and allow yourself plenty of time to make the service,” Mr Collins said.

A railway employee instructs a teenager crossing tracks near Wollongong.The Police Transport Command have been working closely with Sydney Trains to warn customers of the dangers and issued 68 on-the-spot fines last year for various offences at level crossings

“Officers regularly patrol stations with pedestrian rail crossings and are alarmed at the number of customers who ignore safety controls to make their trains,” Mr Collins said.

“The barriers and controls are there to safeguard customers, not to stop them from making their trains.”

Stations between Schofields and Richmond in Sydney’s northwest, Woonona and Bellambi in the Illawarra and Warnervale Station in Newcastle recorded the most near miss incidents.